The Pirates may be out of the postseason picture, but Don Kelly made it clear Friday night that the work didn’t change.
With Kansas City in town to open the series, Kelly kept the message simple: show up and chase the win in front of you. Pittsburgh did exactly that in an 8-5 comeback victory at PNC Park, rallying from an early four-run hole and then a 5-2 deficit to move back to .500 at 77-77.
“Going out there every night, it’s still the same mindset of, ‘Win that game. Win the game that day,’ ” Kelly said. “Guys have done a really good job focusing on that and continuing to grind through it.”
That grinding was on display all over the place. Henry Davis, who entered the night hitting .167, came through with a two-strike RBI double in the fourth, lining a middle-away sinker to right field. Spencer Horwitz, batting just .169 in 33 games since returning from the injured list, delivered the biggest swing of the night in the seventh with a two-run single to left that put Pittsburgh ahead for good, 7-5.
Horwitz said the way the Pirates handled the night fit the standard Kelly has been pushing.
“It’s playing good baseball,” Horwitz said. “We had high expectations and high hopes for ourselves this year, and we've fallen short of that. We've got to be better in every aspect of the game.
“But I think we’ve also learned a lot and [have] shown that we’ve gotten better. We're going to keep learning and keep pushing one game at a time.”
The bullpen kept the door open for the comeback. Brandon Eisert, Yohan Ramírez and Gregory Soto combined for three scoreless innings, and the relief corps as a whole has become one of the club’s biggest second-half strengths.
Before the All-Star break, the Pirates were tied for 19th in FanGraphs bullpen WAR at 1.1 and tied for fourth in blown saves with 16. Since the break, they lead all MLB teams with a 4.4 bullpen WAR, even while dealing with seven blown saves.
“I know it sounds cliché but our goal every day is to show up to win that day,” Kelly said. “At the end of the year, you can look back. But I feel the effort the guys are giving and the way they are competing … we’re going to win as many games as we possibly can with the way we’re grinding it out and fighting.”
Eisert has been a big part of that surge. He has six straight scoreless outings covering 9 1/3 innings since July 28, allowing one walk and striking out 10. In his first six appearances with Pittsburgh, he gave up six earned runs total.
Ramírez has been even more striking given his career path. He has been designated for assignment nine times, yet this has turned into a career year: 1.0 fWAR compared to -0.3 combined from 2020-25.
Since June 6, he has made 36 appearances, posted a 1.55 ERA in 46 1/3 innings and struck out 56. That stretch includes seven straight outings without allowing a run.
Soto has also steadied after a rough patch. He was scored upon against the Cubs and Milwaukee, but those are the only two times he has been tagged in his last 15 appearances dating back to Aug. 14.
The Pirates also got major production from Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz, who combined for seven hits. That kind of contribution from two key pieces has not come nearly often enough this season.
Brandon Lowe added another loud note to the night with his 32nd home run, a 417-foot shot that cut the Pirates’ deficit to 4-2 in the third and helped shift the energy.
“I think [Lowe’s homer] broke the ice a little bit,” Kelly said. “ When you get down four, you can’t score four all at once.
You have to chip away and find a way to score one at a time. To get two back right there was really big.”
Lowe’s season continues to pile up notable numbers. His next home run at home will give him the PNC Park single-season record, and he already has 18 there. He also has 91 RBIs, the second-most by a primary Pirates second baseman since RBI became an official stat in 1920, and his 62 extra-base hits are the most for a Pirates middle infielder since Jack Wilson had 64 in 2004.
With eight games left, the Pirates are still chasing more than just wins. They’re trying to carry the habits from nights like this into next season, the kind of resilience and daily focus Kelly keeps stressing.
“This is the best record this team's had in a long time, and I think that shows growth in not just the team but the organization,” Horwitz said. “We want to keep heading in the right direction.
We have a core group that’s going to return. We're obviously going to focus on now and keep pushing and growing and learning.
But we want to keep this group together and get another crack at it as soon as we can.”
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